Field of the Invention
This invention relates to powered flight, and more specifically to a vertical take-off and landing aircraft with pivoting rotors and stowing rotor blades.
Description of Related Art
There are generally three types of vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) configurations: wing type configurations having a fuselage with rotatable wings and engines or fixed wings with vectored thrust engines for vertical and horizontal translational flight; helicopter type configuration having a fuselage with a rotor mounted above which provides lift and thrust; and ducted type configurations having a fuselage with a ducted rotor system which provides translational flight as well as vertical takeoff and landing capabilities.
The amount of thrust required to take-off in a vertical take-off scenario greatly exceeds the thrust needed to keep the same vehicle aloft during forward flight, when the wings are providing lift. The amount of thrust required to transition from a vertical take-off mode to horizontal, forward, flight mode may also be quite high. Thus, there may be a mismatch between the power requirements if there are not possibilities to change power delivery paradigms during flight.
In order to provide efficiency in both vertical take-off and forward flight modes, improvements to past systems must be made. What is called for is a vertical take-off and landing aircraft that incorporates efficiencies into all use modes.